The BIG 1!!!

Last Wednesday June 23rd my baby Payson turned 1 years old. I can't believe that it has been a whole year already. To celebrate we had his party last Friday. We went with the monkey theme. First I did the invitations. The idea was totally my own but I did use a card layout. I think they turned out really cute.We started the party off by having dinner which consisted of Spaghetti with homemade sauce, tossed salad, and sourdough bread. It was really good. After that we let Payson open his presents. He got some good stuff, mostly clothes. He wasn't really interested in opening the presents though and he kept crawling away. Landon, Emma, and Reagan helped him out though. I love this picture that I took of Payson and his cousin Trent. Trent was trying to give Payson a kiss and I love the look on Payson's face.After Payson opened his presents it was cake time. We stripped him down to his diaper, brought the high chair down to the family room and set it on a sheet we laid down. It was fun watching Payson. He would dig into the cake and eat and then look over and see me. When he saw me he would hold his arms out and start whimpering a little. I made this monkey cake for him. I found it on Martha Stewarts website. Mine doesn't look as good as hers did, but oh well. It was my first one and even though it has crooked ears I think that gives it character.

I made these cupcakes for everyone else. The idea for these came from here.
I saw this several months ago and knew that I wanted to make them for Payson's birthday and that is probably how the monkey theme came to be.For Party favors I made bean bags and then printed off the bean bag games from here.
I also made mini milk cartons with my Sizzix Big Shot and filled them with skittles.It was a fun party and I can't believe Payson is the BIG 1!!!

Emma Turns 6!!

A few weeks ago Emma turned 6 years old. Right now she really likes Hannah Montana and so we decided to do a Rock Star Party. I was pretty excited to do this party and I came up with a lot of fun ideas. First of all I found a cute card to copy for the invitations. I changed the color scheme of the original card and this is what I came up with. I love these quilted cards even if they are a lot of work.The party was held at Grandmom and Grandpa Lifferth's house. For dinner we had Pizza from Papa John's and Salad. Papa John's was having a special and large pizza's were just $10. After dinner we played a game of Freeze dance. I made CD's for each family with different songs that kids might like from Hannah Montana, The Jonas Brothers, Miley Cyrus, etc. The kids seemed to have fun with the Freeze dancing but I don't think that they really understood the concept. They were just dancing around. My sister Mindy designed the CD cover and I love how it turned out!After playing freeze dance we made our own backstage passes. I found a music foam kit at the store and we used that to make them. The kids had fun designing them. Then it was time for Emma to open her presents. She got a lot of fun stuff. Some of her favorite presents included a scooter, a scrapbook kit, a homemade hooded bath towel, and of course the clothes!!For the party favors I saw this cute bag on a blog so of course I had to copy it. I did change the paper and some other stuff. In the bag it had pop rocks, bubbles in a guitar container, fun dip, a guitar necklace. They also got the CD. I don't know if you can tell in the picture but the bag is sparkly. I made my own shimmer spray by mixing some rubbing alcohol and shimmer paint together in a little spray bottle and then just spritzed it on. I love the effect that it gives.

Emma's party was fun and it was a fun one to plan. I think that she really enjoyed it. And she got to use last years Halloween costume again!

Reunited

A couple of months ago Reagan's Doggie went missing. Reagan's Doggie is a lot like Landon's neigh and is literally her best friend. She has conversations with him and snuggles with him. At first it didn't really seem to bother her. But more and more lately she has told me that she missed Doggie. When I would ask if she knew where he was she would just reply with "I don't know."

Last night I woke up in the middle of the night to feed Payson. When I woke up I knocked my glasses of the night stand. This morning when I woke up and I was looking for my glasses I lifted up my bed skirt to look under the bed and I saw Doggie. He was sitting on top of one of the storage containers under our bed. I don't know why I haven't seen him before. When I woke Reagan up I had Doggie behind my back and I told Reagan that I had a surprise for her. When I pulled out Doggie Reagan had a big smile on her face. She has not let go of Doggie all day today. It is fun seeing her having her conversations with Doggie again.I will post about Emma's birthday later. Her pictures are on another camera and I need to get them.

A Hodge Podge of Stuff

I realize that it has been awhile since I have posted and I am really going to try to do better this year. I am going to spare you all the happenings from August-December 2009 and just start fresh this year. I believe that I posted pictures on facebook of Reagan's 3rd Birthday. We did a Build-A-Bear theme and it was really fun.

Payson is now 6 months old, well almost 7 months old. When we took him to his 6 month appointment he weighed 18 lbs (70%) was 26 1/2 inches (50%) and his head was 44 cm (55%). These stats could all be different now. He is a big baby but very cute!!

For New Years Day we had our Black Eyed Peas for good luck throughout the year. I have eaten these every year for as long as I can remember. I don't really care for them but this year they were pretty good. I found a recipe online for Confetti Black Eyed Pea Salad and decided to try it out. Here is the recipe:

1/3 C. Olive Oil

2 1/2 T. Cider Vinegar

1 T. Spicy Brown Mustard

2 t. Honey

2 t. finely grated Yellow Onion

1/2 t. each Salt and Ground Pepper

2 cans (15 ounce) black eyed peas drained and rinsed

1 Yellow bell Pepper, finely diced

1 large tomato, seeded, diced

4 Ribs celery, thinly sliced

2 carrots, peeled, finely diced

2 T. chopped parsley

Whisk oil, vinegar, mustard, onion, salt, pepper, and honey in a bowl. Add peas, bell pepper, tomato, celery, carrots, and parsley. Stir to combine. Cover and refrigerate up to 24 hours before serving. Here is my finished product:

I really needed a place to put my necklaces. They were in a shoebox which was working ok, but they kept getting tangled up with each other. Just not working the greatest. Dave saw a picture in a magazine of a way I could organize my necklaces and showed it to me. I loved it and it was fairly cheep. We just bought a rake, took off the handle and spray painted it black. Now it hangs in my closet and I have a cool necklace holder for all my necklaces and they don't get tangled up anymore. I really wanted to do the picture a day thing this year, but I haven't been able to buy the kit and I haven't taken pictures every day either, but here are a couple. For Christmas Jake and Carla gave Payson these cute red Converse sneakers. They don't fit him yet, but I can't wait until they do. Two of Mindy's girls had Emma and Reagan for Christmas and she sewed them these cute skirts. I found the shirts at Target. Well that is about it for now, but I will try to be better. I am also going to be posting on my other blog http://www.inkedwithlove.blogspot.com/ so check it out also!

Neigh's Extreme Makeover

You may recall that a few months ago I did a post about Landon's beloved stuffed animal Neigh. About a month or so ago Neigh went through an Extreme Makeover. Here are the before and after pictures.

Before

After

Landon's Birthday and Pirate Party

Landon's birthday was on August 7th. Since his birthday party wasn't until the next day as a family we had a little celebration for him. We went to Wendy's and got dinner and also rented "The Tale of Desperoux from the Redbox. We came home and set out a blanket in the living room and watched the movie and ate dinner. It was fun and low key. Landon also opened his presents from us. We gave him a V-tech Digital Camera and a "Phineas and Ferb" DVD.

The next day we had his birthday party. He chose a Pirate theme this year and I ordered 2 party kits from Stampin' Up! They came with invitations, banner, food toppers, pirate eye patches and treasure chests. It made party prep really easy. We started out the party by letting the kids swim for a little bit. Then we ate dinner. We had Submarine sandwiches, potato salad, chips, and fruit. After dinner we had a craft. The kids all made Pirate hats and eye patches. The eye patches came from the party kit and the Pirate hats came from a pattern that my mom has at her school. The kids all had fun making them.

After the craft Landon opened his presents. We of course set out the tape line that the other kids couldn't cross. I can't say that it works perfectly, but it is a lot better than it used to be! Landon got some really good gifts. Like all boys he doesn't care much for the clothes that he open, but he did get some cowboy boots and he loves those!!

After he opened presents we went on a treasure hunt. I had made up some clues and we hid them in the backyard at different places. The clues were typed up on paper, the edges were burned to look like pirate maps and rolled up and tied with string. The kids had fun listening to the clues and then running to the correct place to find the next clues. These are the clues I had:

1. I can roast hot dogs and marshmellows here (firepit)
2. I'm the shape of a rainbow but a little more bumpy (arch Jamie made)
3. I go here to look through the looking glass (telescope on the playset)
4. I'm pretty and I bloom in the Summer and Spring (Flower Bed)
5. When I am thirsty I can get a drink here (drinking fountain)
6. Landon's grandpa grows tomatoes here (garden)
7. You walk through me to get from the front yard to the back yard (gate)
8. I'm round and shaped like a ball--but don't try to bounce me! (fountain by the fire pit)
9. Here you can send or receive mail if you are playing house (play house)
10. Here I can build castles in the sand and X marks the spot where I can dig (sand box)

At the sandbox the kids had to dig to find the treasure. They each got their own individual treasure box that was filled with chocolate coins. The party ended with cupcakes. I think that everyone had a fun time!!

Finally.....An Update!!

I was told by a friend of mine that I needed to update my blog and she is right. I know that I need to, but things have been really busy lately. Now life is slowing down a little and I can finally update. I spent a lot of time the last 2 weeks making Payson's birth announcements and I finally finished them earlier this week. What an accomlishment. But I think I am getting ahead of myself.

Payson David Lund was born on June 23rd. He is the 4th and last. That in itself has made life more hectic. I am so glad that he has joined our family. He is such a sweet and good baby! I went into the hospital at 8:30 and it was probably around 10:00 or so that I recieved the epidural. I had to get it twice because the first time the doctor hit a blood vessell. That was the biggest shock of my life! Payson was born at 3:21 p.m. and was 8 lbs. 9 oz. and 20 inches long. During labor I also had low blood pressure and they had to get it back up before increasing the pitocin. It was making me sick and nauseous. They also had to use the vaccuum to get him out because his head kept turning sideways. He is such a joy to have around
The Sunday before he was born we were at my mom and dad's house. Reagan was climbing up on the piano bench and slipped and hit her chin on the edge. It started to bleed. Dave was at his parent's visiting his mom so I called and told him that Reagan might need stitches. We took Reagan to the InstaCare and she ended up getting 2 stitches in her chin. She was so brave the whole time. She didn't even cry but she did whimper a little bit. She is usually pretty talkative, but she wouldn't answer any questions the doctor asked. As soon as we left thought she was talking lots!The last thing that has happened is that Emma has started Kindergarten. I now have 2 kids in school even if one of them is only in school for 1/2 day. Her teacher is Mrs. Black and Emma really seems to like her. It has gotten awfully quiet here in the mornings with 2 kids off at school. On Emma's first day of school I took her and they had a little activity that they did with a parent the first 20 minutes. Emma took the bus home and I think she really enjoys riding the bus. She is really enjoying Kindergarten also!